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New rules: young Russians can no longer travel to Belarus without a passport
21.01.2026
Children with Russian citizenship who previously traveled to Belarus using their birth certificates will be able to return to Russia without a passport.
The rules for crossing the state border of the Russian Federation changed from January 20 of this year. Previously, Russian citizens under the age of 14 could travel to Belarus (as well as Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan) using birth certificates.
Now, at the federal level, it is stipulated that such trips require a passport for international travel. Last fall, the tourism industry already expressed its concern about this regulation.
The main argument of the tourism industry was that the new administrative barrier within the Union State could reduce the number of school groups traveling to Belarus for excursions.
As reported by Sputnik, Philip Guly, the chairman of the board of the Republican Union of the Tourism Industry (RSTI), said that the volume of pre-orders for such tours has indeed decreased.
Return is possible
Passports for international travel were required for young travelers from Russia before, but this only applied to cases when they traveled to Belarus by air. Now it applies to any trips.
However, Russian citizens under the age of 14 who left Russia using their birth certificates can return home using them even after January 20. For example, such clarifications are given by Russian Railways. The information was confirmed to a Sputnik correspondent by the border service of the FSB of the Russian Federation.
The same clarification was given by the consular service of the Russian Embassy in Belarus. They noted that they do not observe any rush for applications for passports for international travel for children.
Ticket will not be sold
Even before the new rules came into force, many passenger transportation companies warned that from January 20, inclusive, tickets could not be purchased using Russian birth certificates.
However, sales using birth certificates issued by the Republic of Belarus continue. At the same time, there are children with Russian citizenship born in Belarus. In the vast majority of cases, on the back of their certificates, if they are issued by Belarusian authorities, the Russian consular service puts a stamp "citizen of the Russian Federation".
Theoretically, it is possible to buy tickets using such documents in directions both from Russia and Belarus, but no one can guarantee that the child and the accompanying person will be allowed on the train (bus) when they see this stamp, or that they will be deported at the border.
There is another nuance. Previously, it was possible to paste photos of children into the Russian foreign passport of a parent by applying to the same authorities that issue passports. It was cheaper than issuing a separate document, and the procedure was faster. But now it is forbidden to take a child to Belarus with such a passport. This clarification was given by Sputnik in the Border Service of the FSB of the Russian Federation. The consular service of the embassy, in turn, explained that the practice of pasting photos into the parent's passport no longer exists.
Nuances for Belarusians
Russians who have received a regular, that is, internal passport (issued from the age of 14), as before, can travel to Belarus without obtaining any special document. But there is a nuance for Belarusian citizens.
Railway carriers sell tickets using the identity card of a Belarusian citizen only from the Belarusian side. That is, in theory, it is possible to leave using the card to the Russian Federation, but there may already be problems with the return trip.
Russian Railways warns passengers that, even if a ticket for such a card for departure from the Russian Federation has been purchased, they will still not be allowed on the train. So now Belarusian citizens need to travel to Russia with regular paper passports. Young citizens of Russia (under 14 years of age), even those with a Belarusian birth certificate, also need to have a passport.
Source: www.virtualbrest.ru
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